


Scandalous

by ancalime8301



Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Angst, Community: watsons_woes, Great Hiatus, M/M, Past Character Death, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-10 04:18:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2010681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancalime8301/pseuds/ancalime8301
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Watson shouldn't have been surprised by the outraged letters following the publication of "The Yellow Face."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scandalous

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [watsons_woes](http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/) JWP day 23 [prompt](http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/1158455.html): _Eat Raw Meat and Dance His War-Dance. From the original ACD to modern-day adaptations, the treatment of non-white characters in Sherlock Holmes (examples including "The Sign of Four," "The Blind Banker") can be racially problematic if not downright racist. Here's your chance to "fix" such a portrayal, or to deal with the subject of race from any version of SH (Sally Donovan or Joan Watson might have an earful to tell you, or the two African-American protagonists of the comic-book series Watson and Holmes)._  
>  Timeline note: [The Yellow Face](http://www.ignisart.com/camdenhouse/canon/yell.htm) was first published in February 1893, almost two years after Holmes' apparent death at Reichenbach.

When I submitted the story called "The Yellow Face" for publication, I never dreamed it would elicit outrage from some female members of the Strand's readership. The controversy was not that Mr. Grant Munro accepted the little negress; that was good and proper of him as a Christian gentleman.

No, these good ladies were scandalized by my insinuation that any self-respecting woman would willingly marry a negro man. "Mistress Effie", they called her, stripping her of the dignity of either of her married names, and cast aspersions on her character and her breeding--she must have been a loose woman, or at least not raised properly, and Mr. Munro had better take a firm hand with her.

I burned every single missive of that ilk, and was thankful for my habit of changing names and locations in every case that made it to print.

I should have realized I might upset some delicate sensibilities; Holmes would have realized, and teased me gently for being a hopeless romantic in not recognizing the possibility. It was wishful thinking on my part, I suppose, since I, too, have loved and lost one whom it was not proper to love. I should have known better.

Even so, I find I am jealous: she has a child, not just mere stories, to remember her love by.


End file.
